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3. 25 Is Quickly Approaching Um, I’m 100% not ready to be 25 years old. I can’t even clean out my coffee mug at the end of the day; how am I supposed to be a real person? With this new found knowledge that my birthday is in less than 3 weeks, I’ve decided that I want to attempt to get my shit (semi) together. I made a budget. WHAT?! Adult life, hello! I even looked at apartments and I’ve totally got this down. The one thing I’m missing is a job. Casual. I’m working on it, ok? Get off my back.

2. Barre3Ok, so techincally it’s been 2 weeks since my last class; I’ve been busy. But I get points for buying a pilates ball and light weights to use at home. Anyway, these classes are Hell on Earth in the best way possible. Barre3 (a company founded by Sadie Lincoln) is a combination of Barre (ballet), pilates and yoga and gives you a killer overall body workout.

With Sadie’s method, the first 30ish minutes of the class is cardio-based and actually makes you want to die. I cursed my nutritionist the whole time for suggesting I take this class. But the last 30 minutes were actually quite delightful, in a painful, my-ass-may-fall-off kind of way. It’s more pilates based, which means the moves are more concentrated and slow and you do a million reps using only your body weight (or light 1-3lb weights for arm work). Still death-based, but a nice cool down from the cardio.

Overall, these classes kick ass. Madonna goes to them, so you know they have to be good. To find a studio near you, check here. Can’t find one? Sadie also offers classes online to do at your own discretion so you can sweat peacefully from the comfort of your home.

1. ELITE DAILY PUBLISHED MY ARTICLES!Literally can’t even belive life right now. I know it’s like not that big of a deal, but shut your face because I think it is! So far Elite has published 2 of my articles (here and here) as of July 10, and I can only hope they continue to do so. Also, they denied one of my articles and I was really happy about it because I didn’t think it was very well written when I sent it in, and now I know that they don’t just accept whatever is sent to them. My second article got 7k shares and I’m so happy because 7,000 people liked my article enough to share it with their friends. Someone even posted a “rude” comment, so like, I also have haters. I’m loving every second of this…

I also post each of my articles (published or not) on my other blog (which I changed the name/url to) at Stop Irritating Me.

When someone first prompted me to listen to a one, “Young Thug,” I laughed in his face. Literally. I thought it was a joke. I thought we were done with the “Young’s” or “lil’s” but clearly I was wrong. Even as I listen to him now, I’m still confused as to my true feelings towards his latest album.

First let’s look at the fact that his most recent mixtape was dropped as “Barter 6,” when just days before it was titled, “Carter 6.” If you’re thinking that sounds familiar, it’s because it does. Lil’ Wayne’s previous five albums are titled “The Carter” followed by the appropriate album number. It was all very weird. I’m still not over it.

Regardless, I promised myself that I would listen to each track at least 10x before making a decision (I wish this was an exaggeration). While it took a little longer than expected, I came to the conclusion that I enjoy about 60% of the album, give or take. I went through the many phases of “oh-my-god his voice is SO f*cking annoying,” “why does EVERY track sound the same?” and “what in God’s name is he even saying?” It was not easy giving this kid a chance (he’s only 22- a child), but it was semi-worth it in the end. Let me break it down:

One of my favorite songs is “Can’t Tell” and it definitely has to do with the fact that he collaborated with T.I. who I do not hate. The song has a good beat and the three rappers (also collaborated with Boosie) mesh well together. Granted, this track is probably the most mainstream on the album, an obvious people pleaser. Guess what? It did the job.

Another classic is “Constantly Hating” in which Young collaborated with Birdman (another Lil’ Wayne reference, continuing to make the whole situation weirder). This is just your classic haters-gon-hate track that is necessary for every artist to recreate. Young just wants to know if you’re going to do something about it, or “turn to a pussy” and let the haters do their thing. Personally, I would go T Swift on them and shake it off, but that’s just me. I’d be interested to hear a collab between the two…

His most popular track, “Halftime” has a following for a good reason. It has a sick beat and he has a smooth free-style flow throughout it, regardless of the fact that I had to actually google 40% of the lyrics because I had zero idea what he was saying. It sounds like 4 different beats thrown together, but in a strangely cohesive manner. It’s weird but it works.

It’s decent shit. I don’t hate his voice anymore and I do crank it up in my car from time to time. By all means, you could 100% go through the rest of your life without hearing “Thugger” (apparently that’s a thing) and be pretty content with everything. But it’s worth a listen, or ten…

3. New BlogI’m almost 25 and I have no idea what my “passion” in life is. No idea. However, I’ve recently been trying to figure out what it is that I genuinely enjoy doing, and writing is one of those things. I’m by no means a fantastic writer, but I think that the more you write, the better you can become (aka what every single person in writing tells you). So in addition to this blog- that I always forget to write in- I’ve started another at morewritingroom.wordpress.com (creative, right?) where I’m going to write more freely with no set genre. Some posts are short and might just be something that I wanted to tweet but 140 characters just wasn’t enough, and some are a little more detailed. It’s basically all over the place. Regardless, I’m hoping that it helps improve my writing and maybe become a “thing.” Who knows.*Note the link to my new blog is located on the right sidebar titled, “My Random Thoughts”

2. Orange is backDon’t act like you’re not excited. I don’t care if you haven’t even seen the first 2 seasons. I know you’re all just as psyched as I am. It’s been a loooong year and waiting for this new season did NOT help, but all will be well on June 12. Netflix will once again be unleashing 14 new episodes that I will try to watching in increments, but will most likely binge-watch in 2 days and then be left hanging, alone again. BUT I did just read an article that Netflix has alreadyconfirmed a 4th season, so all hope is not lost!

3. New MusicI’ve been a little off my music-game for a while, so I’m listening to new albums a little late. Whatever, at least I’m doing it now. So yes, when I finally got around to listening to Drake’s “If You’re Reading This it’s Too Late” in April (it debuted in February, but probably leaked much earlier) I tweeted every lyric like I was the first person to ever discover him. It was magical for me. Thankfully, I was reminded that I need to get my shit together and get on top of all the albums that were/are dropping. Here’s what I’m listening to right now:

*note that I have quite literally had this in my “drafts” for 6+ months…*

There is no simple way to describe how outstanding this trilogy is (note that I’ve been trying to write this post since the summer). While it is clear that the best way to enjoy these films is in the correct order, I ended up viewing the third, then the first and finally the second. It wasn’t on purpose, that’s just the order in which I found out each existed. Clearly I wasn’t on my movie A game. Regardless, in whichever order you view them, you won’t be disappointed.

These minimalistic films are amazing because of just that: their simplicity. The dialogue is easy and the characters relatable. We see Ethan Hawke grow from a dirty college student traveling abroad with a dream of becoming a writer, to a father and novelist who continues to travel abroad. Deply’s character is similar, in that we first see her as a shy university student, who then blossoms into a mother of twin girls, while also finding herself at a career crossroads. Seeing the timeline of their lives is one of my favorite themes of this trilogy.

The lapse in years between each film’s release date is exactly the same as the lapse in the actual movie (each movie was filmed 9 years after the previous, and the storyline was written with the actual 9 years passing). It amazes me that the characters change in appearance is precisely how it should be and the events that were to have occurred during the breaks match up perfectly. I hate when a sequel comes out a year or two later and the characters have either aged 10 years, or not at all. The way Richard Linklater* produced these films makes them seem even more genuine and authentic. He has quickly become one of my absolute favorite directors/screenwriters/producers.

Rating: 7 stars (out of 5)

*Linklater’s other astounding and critically acclaimed movies include Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, and Slacker, just to name a few.